


If

by chimneysmoke (recension)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-27
Updated: 2013-12-27
Packaged: 2018-01-06 08:08:10
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 413
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1104463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/recension/pseuds/chimneysmoke
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Harry/Charlie, will I see your face again (can i find the place within to live my life without you)"</p>
            </blockquote>





	If

**Author's Note:**

> For the _Welcome Home_ Harry Potter LJ ficathon.
> 
> Original prompt: "Harry/?, will I see your face again (can i find the place within to live my life without you)"

The wedding is the last time they get to be together before the war. Bill and Fleur tangling in their best clothes as the world celebrates outside. Inside the house his own party rages, with Harry underneath him. He's buried inside the World's Greatest Hope of a human being. Charlie makes him sob with pleasure, and lay in silence afterward.

"It's my birthday tomorrow," Harry says quietly. "Will you stay?"

Charlie nods and lets Harry run a thumb across his lip, he cups the younger man's hip and enters him again. This time less desperate but hot all the same, wanting Harry to feel him in the morning.

 

The Death Eaters come an hour later, everyone running off. Harry reaches out for Ginny but Hermione grabs him instead. They're off in a swirl of fading flesh and apparition. Charlie runs for cover and sleeps in the messy bed. They were supposed to have more time.

 

Romania seems hardly safe, even though the dragons are constant work, constant occupation for his hands and his mind. He tries not to think of Harry.

He wanders down to town and meets an old friend, fucks him until he's sore and exhausted in the candlelight. It's not Harry. The distance and the wondering seem deeper and darker than ever before.

 

The owl comes from Bill in May. "Hogwarts. Come." Charlie wants to, but he doesn't. If Harry is going to die, Charlie won't be there to witness it. He won't be able to stop himself from falling apart or shouting or ruining the legacy of the Bravest Man he knows.

If Harry dies, he'll hide the remainders of his family and scatter them across the globe. He'll nurse them and figure out the rest later. 

If Harry dies, he'll never love again.

 

He finds the courage to pilgrim to Ottery St. Catchpole after the papers have already written the headlines.

He walks into the childhood home and does nothing but run for Harry. There is time enough later for explanations and grief for everyone else, for now he grateful to his lover for staying alive.

He slams the door to the bedroom and pushes Harry against the wall, stripping him with fierce, calloused hands and unceasing hunger. Harry cries out, gripping the plaster of the wall with broken, dirty fingernails and the tension that comes with relief of a lover's embrace.

"Charlie," Harry calls out, begs, and stills only when his lover is inside of him again.


End file.
